Page 36 of Corrupted Lies

What kept capturing Jake’s attention was the stunning woman snuggled beside him.

Although they’d sunbathed earlier, soaking up the warmth of the sun’s rays as they lay stretched out on the smooth wooden deck, as the day wore on and afternoon began to turn to evening, the temperature had started to drop. Jake had held on as long as possible, wanting to keep Alannah right where she was because he couldn’t get enough of the sight of her in that sexy red bikini, but eventually, they’d both gotten too cold.

Since she’d made snacks and lunch, he volunteered for cooking dinner duty and brought her up a sweater before heading into the little galley kitchen. His cooking skills werenowhere near as good as hers, but he wasn't helpless in the kitchen, and he whipped them up a decent meal of cheesy pasta and steamed vegetables on the side.

They’d eaten side by side up on the deck because Alannah loved being out there with the wind ruffling the strands of hair that kept falling loose from her ponytail, and the wide expanse of ocean spread out around them. He was a sucker for anything that made her happy, especially given she was only out there hiding from people who wanted to hurt her because of him, so it was no hardship to settle down up there for the evening.

When the temperature dropped more, Alannah produced a soft fleece blanket and asked him to move to sit beside her so she could tuck them both in.

Apparently, he was a masochist because he agreed even though it was torture to have her toned body pressed against his side.

But it made her happy, so that was where they were sitting, watching the sun sink lower into the horizon, looking like a huge golden ball was slowly being consumed by the ocean. The colors were beautiful, the sky painted a mixture of golds, reds, pinks, and oranges, and the sunset brought out the golden highlights of Alannah’s hair as well as making her golden-brown eyes look like two orbs of pure gold, but again it was the woman beside him that stole the show, not nature.

“Jake?”

“Hmm?”

“I said, aren't the colors spectacular?”

“They’re very pretty,” he agreed, although he’d spent far more time trying to sneak surreptitious glances Alannah’s way.

“Is there anything better than watching the sunset alone out on the ocean?” There was such wonder on her face as she couldn’t take her eyes off the sunset, and the peacefulness in her tone soothed his guilt and frustration from the last few days thathe’d brought her into this mess and didn't know how to get her out of it.

When watching the sunset out on the ocean was sitting with his best friend at his side instead of alone, then he could absolutely agree with her assessment.

“Well, I guess there is something better, or at least the same. The sunrise.” Her accompanying giggle did something to him, loosened something inside him, softened the edges of his hard heart.

Hardening his heart as a child hadn't been a choice, it was born out of necessity, a will to survive. Losing his mom at six years old had been rough. Learning his dad wasn't going to leave the military so he could be home more to raise him and Jax had been harder. Then knowing how unwanted he was by relatives, what a burden they considered him and his brother, was the hardest of all.

Family was supposed to be there for you no matter what, support you, love you, and care for you. Instead, his family hadn't wanted to step up after his mom’s death, and to make it worse, they hadn't cared about letting the two small motherless boys know it.

While it had been as much a shock to him and Jax as it had been to the Charleston brothers when their parents married, to them it wasn't a bad one. He’d kind of liked the idea of having a new mom even though he was fourteen and beginning to think of himself as a man.

The hatred Cade, Cooper, Connor, and Cole had spewed at him and Jax those six months had been just another blow. Even as a teenager, he’d understood it wasn't them specifically. They were grieving, and now their mom had remarried and added a stepfather and two stepbrothers to their family without giving them time to breathe and process their loss.

After their parents were arrested and they found the sofa bed in the master bedroom they’d all understood, young as they were, that the marriage was a sham.

Nothing could have prepared them for what they’d learned over the last several months, though, and he was glad that in the aftermath of their parents’ deaths, they’d pulled together and not apart.

He needed his family.

They grounded him, gave him a purpose and a place to belong, and they made him feel loved and wanted.

But they didn't soften the heart he’d long ago learned to harden against the harshness of the world.

Alannah did, though.

She was all softness and light, and even though he was always telling her not to be so trusting because he didn't like seeing her get hurt when people took advantage of her, he didn't really want her to change.

He needed his sunshine, his world needed her light.

“We can watch the sunrise and the sunset every day,” he assured her. He was used to getting up early so it would be no hardship to make sure he was up before dawn and had breakfast ready to go so they could sit up there and eat and watch the sunrise.

The smile she gifted him was everything. It was like pouring water into the mouth of a dehydrated person. It didn't just make him feel better, it revitalized the parts of him that had been dying and brought them back to life.

Which was exactly what it felt like Alannah was doing.

While he knew lots of people had a worse life than he’d had, with a tougher childhood, more trauma, and less of a support system, his life had been hard, and because of that he’d become hard.

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